Little Bastard. The car, the mystery the legend.

It’s amazing how some incidents, some coincidences, can define a history. Perhaps, something more than that.

The customized Porsche 550 spyder ,one of the 90 made ,was a piece of art. Rare, fast and shiny. Like a silver lightning. And of course, wonderful enough to thrill avid racer James Dean, whom would implicate in a fatal collision, on September 30, 1955.

Contrary to his friend’s requests, Dean purchased the car while filming Rebel without a cause for use when he raced. It was a second option, and finally chosen when the

Lotus Mk. X he originally wanted could not be delivered in time for the upcoming race in Salinas, that he planned to compete in.

Acquiring almost immediately the famous for the design of the batmobile “King of Cars” customizer George Barris, the Little bastard (taken from Dean’s nickname while filming Giant) took it’s well known image: Dean’s racing No. 130 on the front, sides and back, the red racing stripes and the name Little Bastard written on the back.

Finally through Filming Giant, Dean was able to race again. But his excitement about his new car, his closest people could not feel. Everyone, including Barris, Eartha Kitt and even Ursulla Andress sensed the malevolent presence about the vehicle.

Even when Dean asked Alec Guiness’ opinion of the car, the comments were the same. There was something sinister about the car.

“James, I don't like this car; it's going to kill you,” Kitt is reported to have said to Dean while the two were out for a drive the week before Dean's crash.

Even Dean himself started to realize something was wrong about his glorious purchase. Altering the lines of a National Safety council Commercial, he said “Please Drive Safely, The life you save may be mine.” Instead of “Please drive safely, The life you save may be your own”

Prior to his death, he gave away a kitten that Liz Taylor gave to him on the set of Giant. His reason for doing so was that “some day I may go out and not come back.”

Maybe he sensed that he was heading to the end. Maybe not. Yet he insisted on racing with Little Bastard regardless.

And so, on September 30 1955, he and his racing crew, including german mechanic Rolf Wütherich and stunt driver Bill Hickman, set off to Salinas, where the anticipated race would take place, on October 1.

Also travelling with them was Life magazine photographer Stanford Rolf, in order to capture Dean’s races.

Based on a last minute’s decision, Dean went on to ride Little bastard himself to Salinas, instead of having a trailer carrying it, as planned.

He wanted to familiarize himself with it, with Wütherich riding next to him.

At approximately 5:20, Dean was driving west on U.S. Route 466 near Cholame, California, when a 1950 black and white Ford Tudor cut across his path. The driver of the Ford was a college student named Donald Turnupseed, who was on his way home . Turnupseed had been driving in the oncoming lane and was attempting to make a left-hand turn on to Highway 41.

Hickman had cautioned Dean that he was still getting used to the car. He insisted on Little Bastard being difficult to see, thanks to its bodywork and silver color. And he was proved right. Turnupseed failed to see Dean.

According to Wütherich, Dean's last words were: “That guy's gotta stop. . . He'll see us.”

He was driving only 55 miles per hour at the time of the collision. Neither Dean or Wütherich had their seatbelts on. The latter was thrown out of the car with force, ending up with a broken jaw and leg. Dean on the other side, remained trapped in the automobile, which was crushed with that much speed that was completely undone.

he was pronounced dead at 5:59 PM. Cause of death: broken neck, multiple fractures of the upper and lower jaw, severe head trauma and massive internal bleeding.

The events that followed later, resulted in the labelling of Little Bastard as cursed.

Few months after the accident, Barris bought the wreckage for $2,500 directly from the insurance company.

As soon as it was delivered to his garage, it slipped of it’s trailer and broke his leg.

Later on, the mechanic sold parts of the car to doctor and amateur racer Troy McHenry.

While racing with little bastard’s engine on his car, on October 24, 1956, McHenry was killed when he lost control of the car and crashed into a tree.

Similar was the fate of physician William Eschrid, who bought the drive train from Barris. It was during a race that got seriously injured when his car rolled several times while taking a turn. He said that the car somehow locked up on him.

And the story goes on. The tyres from the Porsche 550 spyder (who weren’t seriously damaged at the collision) went flat simultaneously at the hands of an infamous New-Yorker.

The strange course of the events, and the two stealing attempts made, that ended up in the injury of the persons involved (from sharp metals of the bodywork), they all led George Barris to decide keeping out of the public eye what was left from the shiny vehicle.

However, the customizer changed his mind, allowing the authorities in California to use Little Bastard, in order to show the results of driving in high speed at the state’s school facilities.

Yet again, the 550 spyder was involved in two peculiar incidents: when a parking lot that housed it got on fire, and when it lowed off its display and broke the leg of a fifteen-year-old student.

Then, on the road to Salinas, the truck carrying the vehicle lost control, and the driver was killed. He was thrown out of the cab, and the Porsche fell off the truck bed and landed on top of him, killing him instantly.

The last reported accident involving Little Bastard, took place in New Orleans, when the stripes holding it broke, and the bodywork broke in five pieces.

In 1960, the authorities decided to give back the silver Porsche to its owner; however that never happened because the 550 Spyder was mysteriously disappeared. It was transported in a box car and sealed shut. When the train reached its destination, the seal was still intact, yet the car had vanished, and has not been seen since.

To this day the car is missing, and not even the price of $1,000,000 the museum of Illinois offered, 50 years after James Dean’s passing, was not enough for the car’s actual location to be revealed.

Some people believe that there is nothing spooky about the story of Little Bastard. Just a series of unfortunate incidents. They believe that Dean was meant to die young, living on the edge. As for the car and its parts, they were just pieces of metal, simple, ordinary objects.

Especially the fans of Dean, insist that with his obsession with the occult, he brought this fate to himself. And not only himself. His Rebel Without a Cause co-stars Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo and Nick Adams, who Dean once called his only true friends, also died under tragic circumstances.

Others aren’t so sure. The coincidences are far too many, and the only common variable there is, is the silver Porsche. Perhaps the highly-charged atmosphere surrounding the well-publicized accident imbued the vehicle with a residual imprint that continued to follow it. Or perhaps the car was just evil. Cursed.

In any case, Little Bastard remains a legend. A legend of mystery, fame and blood. And until the car is found, the answers will never come to light.